


The Tea Shop

by Anonymous



Category: Alice (2009)
Genre: Drug Use, Established Relationship, F/M, First Time, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, One Shot Collection, Teasing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-19
Updated: 2015-12-19
Packaged: 2018-05-08 19:54:21
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5510936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Four Hatter/Alice One-Shots of various ratings, lengths and degrees of seriousness written when the mini-series premiered. Enjoy!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Leash Called Love

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this years ago and now I'm clearing out my LJ. I hope anyone who reads, enjoys!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He's not telling the truth but it feels natural. Hatter's been a liar his whole life.
> 
> [ _Rated G_ ]

 

He doesn’t even think she really wanted any at first but when he said no it became a contest, a battle of wills, and Alice never backs down from one of those. She broke him slowly; an offhand mention here and there about _being curious_ , a statement that _she was a big_ girl, a fight over how she could _take care of herself._

_(“How do you even know I have any?”_

_She gives him the crooked smile he loves._

_“I know you.”)_

He’d only brought them in case of emergency. In case he couldn’t find her or she didn’t want him. In case he had to survive over here for awhile on his own. He tries to warn her off but she's as hard headed as ever. Tells him that it’s not his decision to make or his fallout to deal with

( _Why do you want it anyway?”_

 _“I need to know what he died for.”_ )

 but when you get to the heart of it he knows this is his fault.

Hatter should have _never_ smuggled them here.

-

She’s been standing in the doorway for ten minutes, gently swaying from side to side, and he’s afraid. Hatter’s never seen an oyster (“ _Human **David**.” She always reminds him with a roll of her eyes and particular stress on the earthly name he’s taken up. “we’re called human.”_ ) take the tea before and come out the other side completely right in the head.

He hadn’t let her have the normal dose, just got her to dip her finger in and rub it onto her gums, but it seems like it’s already hitting her hard. She’d chosen the bottle with baby blue liquid inside and a piece of paper with the word _Transcendence_ written by his own hand affixed to the front.

He’d never actually tried this one himself. It had come the day before she did (the day before everything changed and no matter how bad things had gotten he’ll always believe it was for the better) with strict instructions that only certain people were allowed the honor of paying it's insane asking price. Hatter hadn’t been of the chosen few.

He remembers looking the word up ( _transcending the universe and time. Going beyond ordinary limits; surpassing; exceeding; eternal_ ) and rolling his eyes but he can hear her breathing from his corner of the room and she’s staring at him with a strange face. Like she‘s looking through him and _into_ him at the same time. Like she’s aware of what he’s thinking and he crosses his arms over his chest as if it’ll protect him.

She takes a step toward him and he’s sort of ashamed when he flattens himself against the wall at his back. He can’t be afraid of this girl. Not the Hatter who’d been on his own in Wonderland since he was 15 years old. Not the man who carried a sledge hammer at his waist and did things he’d never tell her in order to survive. He couldn’t be afraid of the woman he’d crossed a universe to find.

She walks closer and he realizes that he is. Her pupils are blown with only a thin line of their usual deep blue around the edge. She’s sweating even though the room is cool, strands of her dark hair are stuck to her face and she’s pale as cream. Hatter reaches out and grabs her shoulder, starts to ask if she’s alright when he stops at the look in her eye.

“I know.”

His face goes blank and he wants to pull away but doesn’t. “What?”

She gives a mean cousin of her usual crooked grin, “everything.”

It’s impossible but he can feel himself shaking. He believes her. He reaches out to touch her face with his other hand and ends up catching her when she stumbles forward suddenly. He looks down to make sure she's awake and notices she’s getting her color back. There are red flags high on each cheek and she seems a little confused. He lets out a sigh of relief; she’s coming down almost as fast as she went up.

“I need to lie down.”

He nods and half carries half drags her over to his bed and lies down next to her. She reaches to pull her sweater off when he stops her.  
  
"I'm not sure that's a good idea."  
  
But she isn't listening and keeps pulling at it. "I feel like I'm on fire."  
  
"It's just the tea Alice."  
  
"Help me."  
  
Even off her head she knows just what buttons to push to get what she wants. He helps her tug it off after a moment of uncertainty and her undershirt is damp with sweat. When he rolls her onto her back her nipples are hard and he tries to ignore them as he checks her over. He's not used to this much compliance from Alice. She helpfully raises her arms when he needs it, says nothing as he peels open her eye lids to make sure there's no burst blood vessels.   
  
When he pulls back she's looking at him like she did right before they were supposed to watch a movie that time and ended up making out all day, or when he woke up in the middle of the night to find her in bed next to him.

“Touch me.”

Hatter is not a good man and he’s done too many things to ever try and be one. He doesn’t tell her no for some misguided since of chivalry or over worry that she doesn’t know what she’s asking because he’s pretty sure she definitely does. He says no out of self preservation. Starting that aspect of their relationship at a time like this probably wouldn’t end well and he doesn’t want her to have any reason to ever doubt him.

He doesn’t want to give her a reason to leave.

“Not now. I’ll touch you as much as you want later but I can’t now.”

She groans and rolls to face away from him but he doesn’t take the hint and moves to spoon up behind her. He pulls her hair back into a knot at her neck so she won’t get too hot. He touches her forehead and thinks she might have a bit of a fever but medicine is out since he doesn’t know how it would interact with the tea.

“I kinda feel nauseous.”

“I know. I’m sorry,” he says and sincerely means it. He regrets a lot of things.

“Just try and sleep for me alright?”

She furrows her brow. “I can’t.”

Hatter runs his thumb across her forehead until she relaxes and lays his head at the curve of her neck. She smells hot, like she’s been out in the sun all day and he takes another breath, whispers, “try.”

He moves his hand down over her heart and doesn’t let himself sleep until her breath evens out.

-  
She tosses and turns all night. Calls out for her father, cries and he wishes he could help but he can't. It's the dregs of tea burning off and waking her wouldn't help.  
   
He just pulls her closer.  
-

When he wakes up the next day she’s just coming out of the bathroom. There are circles under her eyes but she looks happy to see him and he lets out a sigh of relief as she sits on the edge of the bed and starts to pull on some jeans.

“Remind me why I drank that stuff again?”

He gets up and sits beside her. Takes the sock from her hand and puts it on for her, “because I told you not to.”

“Oh right…”

He laughs softly and glances up at her before straightening and pulling her into a hug.

“I wanted to do it.”

“I know.”

“Then don’t feel guilty!”

“I don’t.”

He’s not telling the truth but it feels natural. Hatter’s been a liar his whole life.

-

When he asks her what it felt like afterwards she struggles to describe it. Says all she can remember is feeling like she was _forever_. Like she’d been here at the beginning and would be here at the end. Like she was the center of the universe and, when she blinked her eyes, the world stopped spinning.

He asks her if she misses it and she takes too long to tell him no.

-

Hatter flushes the contents of every bottle and smashes them all just to make sure they're gone the very next day.

He hopes it’s enough.

He’s afraid it won’t be.  


	2. The Oyster in Question

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's three a.m. and Alice is wide awake.
> 
> [ _Explicit_ ]

“Tell me something Alice.”

She dog-ears the page of the book she’s reading and watches as he flings himself onto the bed before rolling onto his side to face her. He bends his arm up and rests his head against it with a pensive look.

“What do you love best about me?”

She tries to bite back a smile. Alice has learned a lot about Hatter since his appearance at her front door 4 weeks prior. Things like how he loves Rice-A-Ronie, Dancing with the Stars and Soap Operas so much she doesn’t have the heart to tell him how the latter are all on their way down the drain.

She wasn’t actually going to answer but at the expectant grin on his face she pretends to think it over.

“Well,” she hesitates before deciding. “It would probably be your simple and humble spirit.”

He pouts dramatically. “Not my fashion sense then?”

She runs her eyes over his toned down David ensemble which consists of a heavily patterned shirt and plum colored slacks and shakes her head. “Nope, definitely your giving nature.”

He smiles, lays his head in her lap and she combs her fingers through his hair. This is the closest they ever get to one another since he crossed over. They’ve kissed, held hands, snuggled on the couch and been on dates but nothing more.

For the first time in her life, Alice has taken things slowly in a relationship.

She’s never been the type who took their time and thought things through; she would’ve never accepted the proposal for a date from a student and she definitely wouldn’t have followed a man in all white through a mirror if she was.

She never looks before she leaps and she never measures twice in order to cut once so it’s surprising to her how long they’ve held out when he’s very similar to her in that regard. When she feels closer to him than any of the men she’s actually slept with. When she feels so connected to him and they’ve never really touched one another.

Alice runs her nails over his scalp and he makes a small moaning noise in the back of his throat. She does it again and his features go lax. She can feel herself getting excited. Like the cadence of his breath is putting her in a trance.

“Is this the longest you’ve gone without sex?”

His eyes pop open and the spell is broken. The question surprises her as much as it surprises him when they’ve been playing a highly orchestrated game of not quite since he came over. They kiss but not the way they would actually like to and they touch but not in the ways she wants most. It's like a choreographed dance that they knew without having to learn the steps and talking about sex was definitely out of bounds.

“Alice?!

“What” she shrugs and whispers, “We’re together aren’t we? We should start talking about these things.”

She touches his forehead, whispers, “This is the longest I’ve ever waited,” in order to make him feel more comfortable with the conversation.

He fidgets a little and he’s quiet for a long enough time that she thinks their talk is over before it’s even began. “Me too,” he finally replies. A look crosses his face. The same one he wears when he’s about to say something he thinks maybe he shouldn’t but will anyway.

“What’s the shortest?”

Alice studies his face for any signs of jealousy or anger and finds only a flirtatious curiosity. She smiles. “maybe a couple of hours.”

He barely slips his thumb into the leg of her sleep shorts. “Naughty girl.”

She licks her lips. “You could say that. You?”

He looks up at the ceiling. “Maybe a half an hour.”

“God Hatter!!”

“What can I say? I’m…

“A slut?”

He lifts a brow at her laughing response and she giggles harder. “What? At least I made my guy take me to dinner first.”

“Charming,” he corrects. “Things are different over there when you’re in the resistance. There’s no time for courting.”

“Courting…”

“Yes” he replies to her whispered word and moves to try and get a better look at her. Alice can feel herself start to blush.

“What?”

He hadn’t been posing a serious question earlier and she feels nervous giving him a serious answer now but she can’t help herself. “I love that you use that word.” She admits and moves his head from her lap so she can slide down next to him and snuggle closer. “I love how you put out my candles with your fingers and I love that you take your t-shirts off by grabbing the back of the neck.”

She hides her face in his chest and after a moment he slides his finger under the spaghetti strap of her white camisole, runs it back and forth until she shivers and looks up. Their eyes meet and hold for a moment.

“Right,” he states and quickly disengages. “I should be going then.”

“Why don’t you stay?”

The question is out before she can censor herself and since it’s out there she lets it stand.

“But your mom’s here.”

“I’m an adult,” she reminds him crossing her arms over her chest. “and it’s not like anything’s gonna happen. I just want you to stay.”

“Alice?”

“Hatter?”

She wants to make a joke but he actually seems conflicted. “You don’t want to hold me?”

Her voice is less the come hither vixen she was going for and more the scared and vulnerable girlfriend than what she of would’ve liked.

“Of course I do,” he declares like it’s obvious and she pulls the top cover back, scoots over and waits as he climbs back onto the bed slowly.

“I’m just worried you’ll regret something.”

She notches herself into the space at his side and, runs her finger along his clavicle until he relaxes into her.

“I’d never regret anything that happens with you.”

-

Its 3 A.M and Alice is wide awake.

She’d woken up an hour earlier, unable to sleep with his body heat making her so warm. She'd forgotten what it was like sleeping with someone next to you. Alice wants him to wake up but doesn’t have the heart to shake him so she lays her palm flat against his chest, flicks her thumb over him until a nipple pebbles. She glances up at his face to see him still fast asleep. She sighs, lets her hand wander down lower and touches his belly button.

She needs to stop here but she won't.

She runs her finger lower along the edge of his boxers and knows the exact moment he comes around.

“Alice…,” he asks, voice raspy from sleep but fully alert.

“Shhh,” she answers and for the first time he does just as she asks without a fight.

She doesn’t think, just moves over him like she’s going to kiss him but doesn’t, only watches his face as she slips her hand into the waistband of his boxers and tugs him free. He grabs her wrist but not to stop her, it seems like he just needs something to hold onto to. She glances down and sees that he’s not cut, uses the extra skin almost like a sleeve to excite the nerve ending there. Alice pulls her eyes away after a moment and brings her hand up to his mouth.

“Lick it.”

He does without question and she drags a finger down the center of his chest, leaving a damp trail in her wake, until she can reach him again. Alice teases him for a moment before she pulls his shorts off and takes him in hand, ready to get to business. One pull of her fist and he’s completely hard, two and he’s dripping three pulls and he’s already twitching under her touch. As serene as he’d seemed about whether or not they had sex during their courtship this is proof that he’d wanted it as much as she did. He was just better at hiding it.

She speeds up slowly, swipes the head on her up strokes, squeezes on the down stroke and he starts trying to control her pace.

“Please slow down,” he almost begs and she smiles.

“No. You’re gonna come.” Alice licks the outer shell of his ear and revels in the choked sound it pulls from him, “I’m gonna make you.”

He groans and pushes into her hold like he can’t help himself and she likes it. Likes the control she has over him right now. The knowledge that she’s the only thing he’s capable of thinking about. That she’s able to make someone like Hatter lose their wits.

He’s moaning loud enough for her to have to slip her fingers over his mouth to quiet him. He sucks two of her digits into his mouth and she works him faster at the feel of his tongue darting against the webbing of her fingers. Works him deeper until he flexes against her hand and she uses his come to further ease the way of her touch. He jerks away from her when he can't stand it anymore, still hyper responsive, and she lets him be as she wipes her hand on the edge of the blanket.

He’s breathless and jittery afterward and every prior relationship she’s had leads her to expect him to sort drift off into sleep with a dopey smile but he surprises her and moves into a seated position. Pulls off his shirt and lays back down on his side. The energy seeming to have grown with his orgasm instead of having been depleted by it. Hatter pushes her onto her back and Alice watches him lick his thumb and index fingers. He looks like he’s about to snuff out a flame.

When you think about it, she guesses he is.

“Spread your legs for me, yeah?”

Alice wants him to, God knows she’s been thinking about it since before she’d ever let herself realize it, but this is different. Different than being with Jack because nothing they’d done had ever felt like this and different than doing it to him because she’d been the one in control then. She’d been the one dragging his pleasure out and making him pant. He’d been the vulnerable one.

She does as he asks but he can tell she’s nervous and backs off a little. A little but not too much. She can feel a difference in the way he touches her already even when his caresses aren't particularly sexual there's a knowledge now that they now could be. Everything has changed.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

She can tell by his face that he knows there is but he doesn’t push her, just slips his arm under her neck and smiles. Kisses her forehead and cheeks and that spot behind her ear that always makes her laugh. She’s grinning when he finally slants his mouth over her own and she realizes she feels better. Decides not to worry about opening up to him anymore, about what he might think of what he sees because she knows he’ll love it, love her, no matter what. He uses his free hand to pull down the neck of her top and bends toward her chest slowly, takes a nipple between his front teeth in a nip only to lathe the sting away.

He starts to suck harder and her eyes drift closed in pleasure. She tenses a little when reaches down but relaxes as his fingers slip between her thighs. He finds her clit easily through the cotton of her shorts and panties and rubs hard enough to entice but too gently to bring satisfaction.

She makes a high begging noise and he pulls her closer, almost into a hug, as he sighs out a low, “hush.”

“Don’t tell me to hush,” she orders but he only chuckles in response and moves his hand under the elastic bands. Glides down and works a finger inside before he reaches back with his thumb to circle her clit skin on skin. She gasps and thrusts against his hand, opens heavy lids to see him staring back at her face with an intense expression. She bends her knee up and grasps his shoulder for better traction. Pushes herself into his touch and she can feel it. Can feel an orgasm building off in the hazy corners of her mind.

He knows it too, gasps out, “Yeah,” lowly, more to himself than to her. “Come on.”

She wants to, needs to so bad, but Alice realizes she doesn’t want him to finish her this way. She knows she shouldn’t put him on the spot but if Wonderland taught her anything it was to forget about waiting for some sort of sign to do what you wanted. To go for it before it’s too late so she pulls his hand away and ignores the questioning gaze that follows as she rolls onto her stomach.

She reaches back to coax him on top of her and he comes easily enough. Mumbles, “are you sure,” and she nods quickly as she shimmies out of her bottoms. He gets into place over her and she can hear him almost panting he wants it so bad but he’s still Hatter. Still the thoughtful guy she took too long to realize was there.

“Shouldn’t we be using some…”

“I’m on the pill.”

“The what?”

She doesn’t take the time to explain just pushes up into him and he stops asking questions all on his own. Starts to nudge himself into her slowly, begins gasping at the mid-point and lies flat against her back, bites her shoulder to keep himself quiet. The sharp edges of his teeth create a new flush of desire, makes her thrust back at him thoughtlessly and that’s all it takes. He hits home and she’s trembling it feels so good.

It’s been too long.

He leans up onto his hands and is slow going at first. She assumes he’s trying to feel her out, to gauge her reaction to the way he moves and let her get used to the stretch of him. Usually, she would be begging him to speed up but Alice is learning the value of patience and lets him explore because this feels good too. Like a tease. Like the whisper of a kiss.

He speeds up as he gets more confident that she likes it, leans back forward so he can hold her tight even though it restricts his movement. Murmurs questions like: Faster? Or slower? Or again? Starts whispering words like: Clit and Slippery and Cunt damply against the back of her neck and she thinks she can hear a smirk in his voice as he reaches between her thighs and pushes ever deeper inside of her. It’s happening fast, too fast, but she doesn’t think she could stop it in if she tried so she doesn’t. Just pushes back into his thrusts as she grabs a hold of whatever inch of his skin she can reach and tries to stay quiet as she comes.

She’s shaking and gasping into the pillow and she can feel him, still hard and ready inside of her. There’s no trembling now though. She’d taken the edge off earlier in the night and he’s no longer desperate for it, no longer in a hurry. He tries to touch her but she’s still too sensitive and flinches away. He lets her relax for a moment before trying again. Before he pulls out, slicks moisture from his thumb across her button lip and sucks it off.

He rolls onto his back and pulls her to follow him. She throws her leg over his hips and breaks the kiss so she can reach down and help him slip back inside, begins to glide her hips back and forth leisurely and moans when he slides his palms over her shoulders and across her breast before he settles one between her thighs. Her elbows wobble at his concentrated touch but she ignores it and focuses on the slow heat growing low in her belly. Bites down on her bottom lips and tastes herself. She pulls her shirt off by the hem and tosses it somewhere on the floor before leaning up to grasp his shoulders and ease her ride.

“We’re going to be dead on our feet tomorrow.”

Alice can’t quite see his face but she can imagine it at the deep chuckle that flows from the darkness beneath her. He squeezes her hips and she smiles at his response.

“I hope so.”


	3. Pass This on

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Me and Aurora may or may not have had a threesome with Maleficent.
> 
> [ _Rated G_ ]

 

  
  
Alice had just bitten a section of tape off the roll and stuck it to the edge of her workspace when Hatter, with his newly discovered favorite beverage whiskey in hand, wandered over. He’d gone back to his usual hat and jacket after a depressing two days in oysters’ clothing and other then a few strange looks from her mother no one really seemed to notice or care.

He put his hand to the back of her neck and rubbed his thumb in a circle at her nape until she turned to look at him over her shoulder, smile and innuendo at the ready, only to see he wasn’t flirting. Not consciously anyway. His usually expressive face was stiff with concentration.

 “What is it?”

“She looks familiar.”

Alice glanced at the book before bringing her gaze back to him. “It’s Cinderella.”

He nodded his head with recognition. “That’s right.”

“Right,” and when he kept staring she went on. “You know her from the book.”

“No,” he replied slowly like she was crazy or _daft_ as she’d heard him say. “I know her from _The High Card_ in Wonderland.”

“Hold on a minute.” Alice put the half wrapped book down and turned to make sure she was hearing him correctly. “You’re saying you know Cinderella?”

“Yeah, we’d run across each other every now and then.” He reached over and took another look at the book before nodding with certainty. “She was _all_ about the tea. Would knock back _Patience_ like it was gonna run out. She was always moping about her mom or her sisters or something.”

He shook his head, muttered, “Anyway,” before he kissed her quickly and moved to the door.

“I’ll see you later.”

He was gone before she could do anything more than stare after him.

\---

It was his turn to choose the movie and when she walked into the room he had one from the shelf in his hand.

“You picked something?”

She looked up when he didn’t answer. “Are you alright?”

“I got into it with this prat once.”

Alice came over and looked down at the movie in his hand. “That’s Legolas.”

“Yeah,” Hatter answered with a slight snarl. “He reminds me of your guy.”

“Jack isn’t my anything,” she answered without having to question him. They’d been over it enough for her to know who he was referring to. “You’re saying you fought an elf?”

He looked at her with surprise. “’Course not.”

She let out a relieved laugh. “I thought…”

He turned his nose up and cut her off. “It was more like a beating actually.”

\---

At the third snicker she turned to him. “What is it?”

Hatter shook his head with a secret smile. “It’s nothing.”

“It’s obviously something.”

He licked his lips and started twice before the words came out. “I used to…know her.”

Alice narrowed her eyes at him, then at the screen, then back again. “Aurora?”

His expression went soft and distant and the smile on his face said it all.

She gasped loudly and almost screamed before remembering her mother’s presence and lowering her voice. “You slept with Princess Aurora?!”

He shrugged like a naughty kid. “I guess I did.”

“But she got married almost as soon as she woke up.”

“I didn’t say we _dated_ ,” he replied with a lifted eyebrow and a world weary look. “I said we _saw_ each other.”

It took her a moment to follow but she let out a shriek of disbelief when she did. “No!”

He leaned back into the couches cushions, “Oh yeah.”

“What else?”

“Nothing,” he cleared his throat and tried to stop smiling. “Don’t think about it.”

“Oh we’re way beyond that,” she replied flatly. “Tell me.”

“Well,” Hatter responded sounding cagey. “I don’t think you…”

“Then stop thinking and just say it.”

Hatter cleared his throat and looked down at his hands. “Me and Aurora may or may or may not have had a threesome with Maleficent.”

The long beat of quiet that followed his announcement was suddenly broken by Alice’s small murmur of, “Oh God.”

“I know…,” he lowered his head and kept talking even though Alice was too busy muttering, “no, no,” to listen.

“It’s a shock but it’s nothing you should get too riled about.”

“No!”

“Alice,” he tried to sooth, voice soft and calming but she brushed him off and stood; threw her hands up in surrender.

“You’re lying.”

“What?!”

“I didn’t want to say it before but you cannot be serious.”

He moved to match her stance. “Why couldn’t I be?”

“Well let’s see,” she muttered and raised her hand, ticking off each accomplishment as she paced. “You slept with Aurora; you knew Cinderella and you beat up Legolas.”

She stopped and pointed her finger at him, whispered accusingly, “ _The Lord of the Rings_ isn’t even a fairytale!”

“I can’t believe you!”

“Come on Hatter,” she said, hands on hips. “You’ve had your fun. Now level with me.”

“I’m telling you the truth.”

She cocked her head to the side. “Oh quit it! I know you’re _taking the piss.”_ she stated, emphasizing one of his phrases. “I knew for sure after the threesome thing. You went too far with that one.”

“That was the truth.”

“Yeah…” _right_ she would’ve said but there was a look on his face that stopped her cold.

“I never told anybody that stuff.” He fell back onto the couch. “I thought I could share it with you.”

A moment of quiet feel between them and he looked away.

Alice sighed.“You _can_.”

“Obviously I can’t, you’ll just call me a liar.”

She sat beside him gingerly and put her hand on his. “Look, it’s not that I don’t believe you it’s just…” She took a breath, started to feel bad over the things she'd said. “It’s hard to think of people I grew up loving in that way.”

“You think they’ didn't have a life outside of your books,” he asked adamantly. “You think my great grandfather was as psychotic as they made him out to be? I mean, he was plenty crazy but he wasn’t that bad.”

Alice licked her lips and pulled him into a hug. “I’m sorry Hatter. I don't think that about your granddad and I know that if Wonderland can exist than so can a lot of other places I never believed could.”

“It’s fine,” he relented and hugged her back. “You looked up to them when you were a kid. You don’t want to think of them drinking and fighting and fuc…”

“Alright I got it,” she cut him off with a grimace and a shake of the head.  “I just need time to get used to all of this.”  
  
 Alice settled back into the couch. “You wanna start the movie?”

“I actually have to be to work pretty early tomorrow.” He stood and started to pull his coat on. “Can I take a rain check?”

She nodded, covered her mouth at an unexpected yawn. “It seems like I ought to be getting to bed too. I really am sorry."  
  
"I know," he replied with a grin.  
  
"I’ll see you tomorrow?”

Hatter nodded yes, leaned down to kiss her goodbye and called out his farewell to Alice’s mother before leaving.

\---

He considered it a major accomplishment that he made it all the way to the elevator before laughing. Hatter knew what he was doing was wrong and he couldn’t even imagine how angry she was going to be when she figured out he had a Netflix account and came across his shipping activity.

He couldn’t be blamed though; it wasn’t his fault her face got all scrunched up and cute every time he defiled one of her childhood memories so the way he saw it, Hatter Had two options. He could go back right now. Tell her the truth and charm her into forgiveness or he could go and watch the copy of _Labyrinth_ he was pretty sure would be waiting for him in his mailbox.

He thought of the look of disgusted bewilderment that had crossed her face at his mention of the threesome and pressed the button for the Lobby with glee.  
 

 


	4. The Little Things

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There are no bras in Wonderland
> 
> [ _Rated G_ ]

Growing up in Wonderland, Hatter learned to appreciate the small things in life. Little moments of happiness like the modest pieces of chocolate they sometimes got in their ration kits or the first sip of a new tea or waking up to another morning with your neck still attached to your shoulders.

That characteristic has stayed firmly intact since his trip through the mirror and is one of the reasons he’s now staring gape jawed at Alice.

“Do it again.”

She stops throwing clothes into the washer and looks over shoulder at him. “Do what?”

“What you just did.”

Alice looks down at the bra in her hand and laughs when she realizes what he asking. “What? You’ve never seen _Flashdance_.”

He hasn’t even heard of it but she forgets sometimes that they don’t share the same cultural touchstones. He doesn’t correct her. It means that he’s becoming less and less that guy from someplace else and more and more a part of her world.

He presses his palms together and stares at her pleadingly. “Just one more time.”

She sighs but slips the garment back into place underneath her shirt before removing it through the armhole again. There are no bras in Wonderland, women wear corsets or nothing underneath their dresses, so Alice’s undergarments were already mysterious devices to him. Now they’re thrilling. Hatter stares at the blue satin contraption transfixed, mutters, “My God,” with wonderment clear in his voice before meeting Alice’s eyes. “You’re magic.”

She’s blushing as she curtsies before moving to throw it in the washer when he stops her. “Again?”

She rolls her eyes but already has her arms under her shirt and is working the slip of fabric back onto her body.

“Alright,” she hooks it back into place and sticks her arms back through the armholes to show him it’s securely on before putting them back inside and getting to work.

“One more time then it’s going in the washer Hatter!”

He nods and smiles. Already thinking of a way to get her to do it again. “Whatever you say, Alice.”

 

 


End file.
